Card of the Day: VII The Chariot

The 22 cards of the Major Arcana are often divided into three rows of seven (plus The Fool as the animating force), with the first row referred to as the “outer world” sequence. The Chariot is the final card in that row. After the activation of our inner & outer selves (the Magician & the High Priestess), our connection to Mother (the Empress) and Father (the Emperor), our socialization (the Hierophant), and our beginning to exercise personal choice (the Lovers), we end up here.

The Chariot represents our ability to make things happen through our conscious will. It’s important to learn that we are active agents in life, able to identify & actualize our desires and goals. When we cycle through this process enough times, we can end up wondering, as Peggy Lee so memorably put it: “Is that all there is?” In short: no. There are 14 more cards in the Major Arcana sequence; the adventure has just begun.

I was working at a “good” corporate job (serious Chariot energy) when September 11th happened (see card XVI The Tower), and felt so grateful to find my way to the Monastery, where I’d finally undertake the “real” work. Turns out in many ways I was still working with some serious Chariot energy. I missed a lot of guideposts on the inner journey, and ended up contending with another kind of tower falling—ideas about who I am, who other people are, what life is about.

Developing and exercising self-efficacy is crucial. But it has its limits. It’s like a person riding an elephant that is lurching and charging, and who rationalizes the elephant’s moves to convince themselves that they’re the one directing things. In a culture that doesn’t much support engaging with the 99% of life that we’re not immediately conscious of, this makes sense. But when rationalism and force stop working, what do we turn to then? I think our current moment calls us to ask this question as deeply as we can.